h264

Exciting news from Plex, the media center for Mac OS X that won my heart a long time ago. The devs have announced that they’ve integrated Apple’s new video decode acceleration framework into the latest build. In English, that means all h.264-encoded video—and there’s a lot of it out there—can be sent to your GPU for decoding, giving your CPU a bit more breathing room. Read More

Earlier today, there was a lot of hubbub over Facebook supposedly enabling HTML5 video playback on their website. This would, of course, allow Facebook videos to be played natively within the browser on the iPad and iPhone. More significantly, it would be another big blow to Adobe’s Flash format. The only problem? These Facebook videos aren’t using HTML5 at all.
Yes, videos on… Read More

Own a MacBook or MacBook Pro that doesn’t have an Nvidia 9400M? Don’t expect to use hardware acceleration for h.264 video decoding in Snow Leopard. Yup, a quick check of Apple’s Web site shows that only the 9400M will be compatible with Snow Leopard’s ability to hand off h.264 video decoding to the GPU. Tough break, kids. (Or you can get a Windows PC, which has had… Read More

So, Myka. Remember what it does? Right, it’s a little set-top-box that plays high-def videos on your [presumably larger than your computer monitor] TV; it can download using BitTorrent right onto its built-in hard drive. That, or you can manually load previously downloaded videos onto it via a thumb drive or through a network. Oh, and now it plays “independent, foreign and cult… Read More

In addition to having TVs as far as they eye can see, Samsung has that YouTube camcorder, the SC-MX20, on display at IFA 2008. I understand that PR folks are there to tell you how great everything is, but if Robet Scoble’s producer can come away with the impression that it’s a useful little camera—we all walked the show floor a bit together, yay—, then I’m… Read More

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Fox is now releasing DVDs that include iTunes-compatable H.264 video files, as was rumored last month. The first such DVD, the “Blue Harvest” Family Guy episode, isn’t scheduled to ship until next week, but several copies have already made their way into fans’ hands. (Amazon lists it for $16.09, so there doesn’t appear… Read More